Radio monitoring system for
Wantok Radio Light
in Papua New Guinea
Because of your support and many answered prayers, we have now been in Indiana, serving as Reach Beyond missionaries, for a whole year! Praise God!! Thank you for your support and encouragement along the way.
This past year has been eventful and very internationally-focused. Tom assisted ministry partners in Haiti, Papua New Guinea, Zambia, Malawi, Kenya, Liberia, Ecuador, Peru, and Nepal. For myself, I have assisted ministry partners in Haiti and Canada, with an upcoming service trip to Peru later this month. So although, yes, we are based in the USA, our focus is very much international. In fact, in 2014, SonSet Solutions, the organization where we serve via Reach Beyond, assisted 158 ministry partners in 62 different countries via equipment, service, consultation, and training. God is so good!
Tom’s most recent project is to design and build a low-cost, cellular-based device that monitors remote radio station activity for ministry partners. Currently, operators of remote radio stations do not have a way of knowing when there is a problem with transmission and simply rely on listeners contacting the station to inform them if they are off the air. At times, it can take days for the station to receive such feedback. The low-cost monitor Tom developed attaches to the diagnostic port to monitor about a dozen different aspects of the radio transmitter; operators can know (at all times) if they are on the air, and if they are not, exactly what had gone wrong. The first monitor of its kind traveled with a colleague to Papua New Guinea last week. It will be installed on our partner station Wantok Radio Light. According to the station’s directors who visited our ministry last month, “at any given time, there may be two to three million people listening to the broadcasts from Wantok Radio Light.” As you can imagine, keeping them on the air and providing a quick turnaround time when they are not, is important.
News on the home front: Several friends came to visit us this spring. What a refreshing and encouraging boost visitors bring! Our guest room is now housing Dillon, an engineering student from Cedarville University. Dillon is one of six students serving as interns at SonSet Solutions during university summer break. Truth be known, he has been a huge blessing to us; and Jonathan thinks he’s awesome. We are grateful to have a home with a guest room to share, especially given that we’ve been blessed with a place to stay in so many people’s homes over the last few years. Please let us know if you are interested in visiting us in Indiana and learning more about our ministries!
About a month ago Jonathan had a mishap while trying to stand on a ball, which resulted in a broken left arm for him and gratitude for health insurance for us. Although the doctor has some concerns with how it is healing, Jonathan has adapted quite well to a long-casted left arm and loves the lime green colour. Matthew adores his brother and, as such, often tries to convince friends to sign his arm too.
We have a kitchen floor again!
Thank you for your support and encouragement over the last year. From those who helped pack our possessions, to those praying for us through all the transitions, we are thankful for each and every one of you for helping us along the way. We simply could not be here without our supporters; God bless you for your important role in missions!
And for those interested in supporting our work with Reach Beyond, a registered charitable organization, click here for Canadian donations (scroll to the bottom of the page and select us from the dropdown menu) and here for the USA (at the top of the page, right under our name).
Thank you for all of your prayers and support!